Chasing down the powerful

The ABC is taking a risk in moving satire into a
primetime slot, writes Debi Enker.

CRAIG REUCASSEL is standing on a suburban street in Sydney
hoping, in the nicest possible way, to ambush Cardinal George Pell.
The writer-performer with The Chaser is dressed as a giant serpent
and carrying a basket of apples, and his presence has not escaped
the notice of curious guests arriving to attend a morning tea at
Maroubra's Marist College. The senior boys, however, are glaring
and taking very seriously their task of guarding the school gates.
This could be a problem for a man in a serpent costume.

If Reucassel doesn't succeed in getting close to Pell and
offering him an apple, he'll settle for local member of Parliament
Peter Garrett, who is also scheduled to appear at the function
arranged to mark the opening of a new building.

Depending on how things pan out, Reucassel's ruse might form
part of a "What Have We Learned from History?" segment. Last year,
he dragged a Trojan horse around Sydney to determine what we'd
learned from the Greeks' siege of Troy (not much, if the welcome
from the guards at the Victoria Barracks is any indication). Now
he's assessing the enduring impact of the Garden of Eden fable:
will the unwary still be tempted by reptiles proffering fruit?

Welcome to a typical morning with The Chaser. The group last
year presented The Chaser's War on Everything, a comedy
series that defies quick definition. It's a satirical show with a
focus on current affairs, particularly politics, business and the
media. Filmed in part before a studio audience, it features cast
members ruminating over recent events with lacerating wit and
considerable irreverence. They do this while sitting on a couch
plonked in what looks like a teenage boy's cluttered bedroom. In
other segments, they lampoon advertisements, eviscerate
public-affairs programs, perform pre-recorded stunts and parody
ancient British sitcoms. The ABC's head of television arts,
entertainment and comedy, Courtney Gibson, describes the show as "a
unique form, a variety show that is news-reactive".

It's that news reactivity that has the potential to cause Aunty
some headaches. In a period that has seen the national broadcaster
come under sustained attack for perceived bias, a comedy show that
takes aim at high-profile figures in politics, business and the
media is likely to attract some flak. Which makes the new
positioning of it, smack in the middle of a popular Wednesday
line-up of comedy and light entertainment programs, something of a
bold move for a network that has at times appeared to be cowed by
its critics.

However, as Reucassel's serpent stunt suggests, in addition to
its satirical thrust, the War on Everything also possesses
a prankster spirit. Chaser members gatecrash company meetings,
press conferences and business functions asking ridiculous and
inappropriate questions. Just to see what happens. Favoured targets
are politicians and captains of industry, although some skits
target regular punters, say parents pushing prams, who will be
asked about their baby's name and then mock-fined if the name is
deemed to be pretentious or stupidly spelled.

"I suppose Chaser 101 is a sketch that involves us setting up
somewhere, some security person comes and shuts us down, we say a
smart-arse comment and that's the sketch," says writer and
performer Julian Morrow, who is also the show's executive producer.
"I used to joke that if we go out there and the target says
something stupid, that's in the show; if we go out there and I say
something stupid, that's out. But that's not 100 per cent true
because these days we don't mind making fools of ourselves."

But that's their call because while the ABC monitors their
scripts and has its legal team peering, perhaps anxiously, over
their shoulders, The Chaser members write, produce, perform and
edit their own material.

"They're a multi-skilled team," observes Gibson "They're
incredibly disciplined, they're workaholics. They're very
pragmatic, but they're fearless. They always go one step further
than you're expecting them to, which means that you watch the show
on the edge of your seat. You don't often get that in a
post-produced show. It's usually with live television that you're
thinking, 'What's going to happen next?' The Chaser manage to
create that atmosphere because of how far they push it."

In these endeavours they have some help from a staff that
includes producer Andy Nehl and director Craig Melville. But a core
group runs the operation, a team originally made up of Sydney
University students who started a satirical online newspaper in
1999. The founders were Charles Firth - now the show's US
correspondent - Dominic Knight, who runs the website and writes for
the show but is rarely seen on screen, Morrow and Reucassel. They
were subsequently joined by Chris Taylor, Chas Licciardello and
Andrew Hansen.

Although they had been approached by the Nine Network, the
Chaser team made the transition to TV on the ABC with the help of
Andrew Denton, who Morrow calls their "comedy fairy godfather".
They made The Election Chaser (2001), two seasons of the
cable news network parody CNNNN (2002-2003) and The
Chaser Decides (2004). The online newspaper folded in 2005 but
survives as chaser.com.au.

THROUGH 2006, the team steadily built a following for the
War on Everything in a floating slot late on Friday night.
They began the year with an average national audience of 591,000
viewers and ended with 821,000. Now the show has been shifted to a
plum prime-time slot, following Spicks and Specks on
Wednesday.

The mid-week berth opened up in part as a result of the axing of
another local comedy, the impudent studio-based talk show The
Glass House. So The Chaser has become the ABC's great white
hope in the topical comedy arena, at least until the late-April
debut of The Big Gig program currently being piloted by
Glass House producer Ted Robinson.

With a federal election looming, a recently installed federal
Opposition Leader and a NSW state election this weekend, there's
likely to be more than enough politics to keep the Chaser team
occupied through their 26-week season. With their collegiate
approach to writing and performing, and their involvement in all
stages of production, they will be busy. Morrow estimates that
during the season, a 60 to 90-hour work week is typical.

The group mainly comprises lawyers, along with a TV journalist
(Taylor) and a management consultant (Knight). Morrow says that, in
their younger years, the Chaser members weren't the extroverted
class-clown types: "Basically, we've kind of been late-developing
idiots," he deadpans.

A rebellious and sceptical sensibility infuses their work. The
show thrives on its prankster spirit, which is possibly why they're
often referred to as the Chaser boys, even though all of them are
either approaching or recently passed their 30th birthdays.

Yet their style of comedy sometimes elicits the label of
undergraduate, a description that makes Morrow bristle: "It's f
postgraduate humour if nothing else," he protests. "Undergraduate
humour is a term used by people who think that the only funny thing
ever written was Yes, Minister because everyone was in suits and no
one farted. And it was a great series, really funny, one of my
favourites. But comedy is broader than that. I love the fact that
we can do stuff that is satirical, and even sometimes funny, and do
fart jokes and silly stuff. That's what's fun about it."

He says that the brief from the ABC isn't specific: "It has to
be 2612 minutes a week, and preferably funny." The roles of various
team members in finding the funny stuff has developed organically
over the years.

"Andrew Hansen's got more of a theatre background and a musical
background, so his things tend to be more theatrical," says Craig
Melville. "He has dialogue and lines and he's less inclined to
confront a politician. Chris does a bit of both and he's also the
script editor. Craig and Chris tend to do the more political
things. Chas does some political stuff but probably more the
out-there, crazy ideas. Julian does more of the political stuff.
He's quite confident about going up and talking to high-powered
people and confronting them."

Morrow says that "with The Chaser, its sum is greater than its
parts. We always joke that between the five of us, we're one decent
comedian. We're not shy: I suppose that's probably the extent of
our qualifications for performing.

"Generally speaking, because we're all self-promoting
egomaniacs, whoever comes up with a script will have first dibs on
it, except where we think there's obvious casting. Andrew Hansen is
the only good character actor, and he's very good with accents and
music, so he gets all that.

"Anything that we think is too silly or dangerous to be done by
someone we care about, we get Chas to do. Then you get bizarre
characters that develop, like my ticket infringement officer and
Andrew's Crazy Warehouse Guy."

Courtney Gibson notes that while the team members specialise as
individuals, the kind of comedy they unite to produce has a
singular appeal: "They're audacious, but they're not pugnacious.
They're not aggressive: they're cheeky and charming. In craft
terms, they're a joy to behold: they're very disciplined and the
show rockets along. They look fearless and spontaneous, but they
plan."

MAINTAINING the element of surprise and devising the strategies
required for guerilla-style ambush film-making can make the War
on Everything a nerve-racking show to work on, but it's
clearly also a lot of fun.

As she's overseeing the shooting of a spy-themed sequence for
the new opening credits, series designer Ingrid Weir notes
appreciatively: "The great part about this job is that you have no
idea from week to week what you'll be asked to get. This week it's
a sci-fi, Mission Impossible sort of look. Another week we
had to make a set for an African sweatshop. There was a White
Stripes video and a set for "Are You Being Shagged" (the Are
You Being Served spoof). It's very creative and you have to
think on your feet."

Back on the street, Reucassel is doing just that as the police
arrive to check out the disturbance reported outside the Catholic
college. They chat to the crew, are assured that the incident is
both innocuous and complete, and amicably move on.

Reucassel, who spent the previous day playing a blind taxi
driver for a sketch, returns to the office to prepare for his
afternoon's work: walking through the central business district
dressed in Speedos, a parody of NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam
in campaign mode.

Elsewhere, Weir and make-up man Alan Mead discuss what props
they'll need for a sequence involving bloody, severed limbs.
Licciardello heads to his computer to log segments from the
previous night's Today Tonight and A Current
Affair. "It's a bizarre job," says Reucassel with a smile.

But it's just another day for The Chaser. "I don't know why
anyone would want to work on any other show, really," says sound
recordist Lauren Howard as she prepares her microphones for the
next escapade.

LINK: chaser.com.au

The Chaser's War on Everything returns Wednesday at 9pm
on the ABC

Pranks of 2006

· January: Chas Licciardello stuffs raw meat down his pants
to attend Sydney's Big Day Out music festival, aiming to test the
awareness of security sniffer dogs.

· February: Richard Cooke, who worked for The Chaser
website, sends a copy of a Leunig cartoon to an Iranian newspaper
offering gold coins for cartoons on the Holocaust. Executive
producer Julian Morrow says the prank "did not occur with The
Chaser website team's knowledge or approval".

· February: Morrow approaches AWB executive Charles Stott
outside the Cole inquiry into the activities of the Australian
Wheat Board and asks him to sign an over-sized cheque for $300
million made out to "Shady Jordanian Trucking Company" and
"Saddam's Defence Fund". Stott's lawyer complains to Commissioner
Cole that his client was "completely shaken" when confronted by "a
complete lunatic".

· May: Licciardello pops up as a "bonehead" throughout the
Logies telecast (above), even taking the stage to accept an award
with the Blue Water High cast.

· May: Chris Taylor appears on Seven's Sunrise and plays
nice until the end of the segment when he asks to send a special
message to his partner of seven years: "Get the f--- out of my
life!" he bellows on live television.

· July: Licciardello is charged with offensive conduct
after he appears outside the stadium for an NRL match between the
Bulldogs and St George-Illawarra dressed in a Bulldogs beanie and
jersey and selling fake knuckledusters, knives and flares, which he
claims are "official Bulldogs merchandise". Magistrate Joanne Keogh
dismisses the charges in January, ruling that most people knew it
was a joke.

· August: After Prime Minister John Howard is hugged by a
Melbourne schoolboy who is later revealed to have been carrying a
screwdriver, Craig Reucassel approaches the PM, on a Gold Coast
walk, with a fake axe.

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